Shine Magazine, Issue 9, October 2009 - Department of Education ...

78 Oct 09
Regional Roundup
Good news from around the state
Compiled by Tina Luton
Northern Metropolitan
Croxton Special School has opened its kitchen
garden to neighbours, offering a couple of plots for
community use in exchange for help looking after
the garden during summer. “Sharing our beautiful
garden breaks down barriers and builds community
engagement,” says Basil Natoli, who runs the
garden and has worked with the children for the
past three years, helping them to plant a huge range
of produce. “We have broad beans and broccoli, bok
choy and beetroot, we have nashi pears, kiwifruit,
Fuji apples, rhubarb and lots of hardy, ornamental
plants. The neighbours can come and plant their
own produce and all we ask is that they water the
garden over the summer holidays. We have two
wonderful water tanks and can harvest 12,000 litres
of rainwater from the roof of the school building,
which is used to keep the garden alive in the hotter
months,” he says.
Southern Metropolitan
Patterson River SC teacher Craig Waldron has set Shakespeare’s immortal words to music once
again to create The Tempest rock opera. The show incorporates 34 students in Years 9–12 from nine
schools in the region, including Pakenham SC, Drouin SC, Mornington SC, McLelland SC, both
campuses of Beaconhills College, Mt Erin SC, Patterson River SC and Mt Eliza SC. This incredible
project has been two years in the making and includes more than 30 original songs, which will
be performed by the Pakenham Hills PS choir for the Australian performances. In November, the
students will head to Europe for performances in Italy and Germany, taking their sets, props and
costumes with them. The visit follows the successful tour of Mr Waldron’s rock opera Romeo and
Juliet to Milan in 2007. In September, 25 students and six teachers from Milan will visit Melbourne
to perform Pinocchio, and will stay with the cast members of The Tempest.
Barwon South West
Warrnambool West PS is well on its way to
becoming an accredited Australian Developmental
Curriculum School by the end of this year. In
working toward accreditation, the school has
quelled morning hyperactivity among its 15 Prep
students, with a teaching program designed to
engage them through playtime activities. Teachers
Judie Irvine and Siobhan Lilley say the program
has been so successful that they are now running it
for students in Years 3 and 4 and will introduce it to
Year 1 and 2 students next year. Ms Irvine explains:
“We have a tuning-in session where we remind
the children of things we have been talking about
and looking at. Then we set up a series of activities
around the room, it’s investigation time, which they
can do at their own pace.”
Examples of these activities include role playing,
working with modeling clay and reading. The
teachers keep a close eye on what the students are
doing and how they are interacting, and will pick
up on something they feel is worth tuning the other
children into. “The outcome,” Ms Irvine says, “is
that we have children who are much more engaged
and interested. They are writing with purpose, and
there is more language development as they have
to share information and negotiate with each other.
We started with the Preps and the whole school
has benefited.”